A good call center service can act as an important pillar for the growth and development of a company. And the key to this is getting a good call center software solution. There is no doubt that this depends on a plethora of features that need to be gauged and compared to find a good call center software solution that suits your business.

Business factors

The functioning of your business depends on various factors. And the same holds true vice-versa. To ensure that the call center software solution you pick is the right one, you need to keep business features and factors affecting its growth in mind.

• Type of call center

Depending on the size of your company and the kind of infrastructure you have, the type of call center software solution you need will vary. There are four major types of call center systems.

• On-premise call center: The call center will operate from your office in a fixed area. You will need to provide the infrastructure for this system.
• Hosted call center: A third-party organization handles all the inbound and outbound calls and other customer interactions. This information is then provided to your company’s back-end systems, reducing the cost of ownership.
• Cloud-based call center: A third-party organization owns the required infrastructure to manage all customer interactions. This service is shared with you on a subscription basis, all you need is a stable internet connection and a headset. The service can usually be accessed through an app specific to the third-party organization.
• Browser-based call center: This is mostly similar to a cloud-based call center system, but the system can be accessed with just a stable internet connection and a browser instead of a specific app.

Make sure that you spend ample time considering all the pros and cons of having each of these systems to figure out what would suit best for your company.

• Flexibility and Scalability

Call centers always have an extremely fluid functionality. Sometimes all your customer service agents can be busy operating calls while other times, you might need a lower manpower. Your call center software solution should be able to easily adapt to these changes.

Along with this, your call center software solution should also facilitate smooth scaling of your business. Cloud-based and browser-based call center software solutions are especially helpful in this. As they need minimal infrastructure to grow and can also be used with agents located in remote areas, you can expand your call centers to any scales.

• Integration with other business tools

Having information on the customers when your call center agent is talking to them can be extremely useful. Not only will the agent not need to waste time on looking for the customer is referring to, but it will also give the customer the impression that you are keen on helping them out.

Try looking for call center software solutions that can be integrated with the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software of your company. Even a few seconds saved on every call can produce big results in growth.

• Ease of use

Imagine that you successfully found a great call center software solution for your company. It matches well with your business views and is loaded with features. Except, you also have a long list of instructions on how to use the software.

It is important that the software you pick has simple steps and easy to get adjusted to in just a few hours by anyone. One best way to find out if this will be helpful to your call center agents is to let them try it out. If the agent can’t master the usage in a couple hours, then the software is no good.

• Availability of phone numbers

Penultimately but not the least, phone numbers are most fundamental to the functioning of your call center. Depending on the nature of your business or the purpose of your business number, you should be able to choose a toll free number, a vanity number, or just a plain old local number. For instance, if you are an NYC-based business and you need to be easily accessible to your local audience there, you should check if the call center software you are evaluating can provide you with 347 area code or 646 area code phone numbers.

• Price

If you are worried about spending too much, just do a quick calculation on what it might cost you if your phones were down? What if your agents don’t have the right tools to get the job done? What if there is a bug that can’t be fixed? If all of these issues bother you, then don’t think twice before going the extra length to get an optimal call center software solution for your company.

When negotiating the price with your vendor, make sure that they have laid out all of their cards. The last thing you want is to be charged a long bill with hidden charges while you’re on a contract with them. Make sure that you both agree to a completely transparent bill what you can view at any time.

Technical features

Along with some features that help your company grow, there are some internal technical features that you need to keep in mind when buying your call center software solution.

• Automatic call distribution

This is a telephony system that distributes calls to specific agents in your company. It usually functions with Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems to reroute the calls to the best agent for the service.

• Interactive voice response

The IVR service uses a set of commands and gets solutions from the customers to understand their issue. It also informs your customers about your current products and services. With simple keypad inputs or sometimes even voice inputs, the IVR service can route the call to the best agent for the service.

• Skill-based routing

This feature reroutes calls depending on the skills of the agents in your company. It gauges the skills of your agents and keeps a not of who is good at providing what kind of solutions. And when a customer calls with a specific issue, the call is redirected to the agent that specializes in the same field.

• Self-help tools

Any feature that can save the customer’s time will give them a satisfactory experience. Self-help tools can help customers solve their problems and can also save their time. This can also save the time spent on doing the same by an agent. This can be easily done through the IVR system.

• Real-time reports

It is important to measure the productivity of the call center every now and then to make sure that everything is running smoothly. For this, make sure that the tool you pick can give your real-time reports of everything going on in the call center. This data should be kept handy for everyone to see and work on if there are any issues.

It might not be easy to pick the right call center software solution for your company. But it is important that you spend enough time on research and exploring the features of the call center software solutions to ensure that you find the best match.